Things strike you weirdly when you're under the weather

I've been fighting off a cold for about a week now. I have a bit of an upper respiratory thing going on that won't leave me alone. It hasn't manifested itself to its fullest extent yet because I've been keeping it at bay with Nyquil to keep me asleep, and going to bed earlier. That's working OK so far, but it's kickin' my butt during the week. It's sucking the life out of me, and I'm coming home dead tired. Being without my glasses hasn't helped. I gotta get this thing beat so I can go back to mistreating myself!

And because I haven't been feeling well, I've noticed some things that wouldn't normally get much attention from me. I'm noticing more humor in the Bible than I have before, stuff like that. The strangest thing though, by a wide margin is the whole cultural phenomena of the Amber Lamps video, and how it's taken off. I know you've seen it. If you haven't, just search Amber Lamps on YouTube.

I'm just amazed at what gets noticed and run with. I had no idea there was even a young lady on the bus, until I started seeing links on various forums. All this happened with the speed of fad. It's puzzling to me that what maybe a handful of people would have known about ten years ago was known to something like three million within just days. We truly are in the information age.

That is disconcerting to me. For somebody with as much of an Intardweb presence as I have, I've done an adequate job of staying off the grid with my name. But all it'll take is to be in the wrong place at the right time and somebody having a video camera, and all that will go away and everybody will know the name...for a while. I guess one of the plus sides to this phenomena is that people that would really get into this will be done with it in a short time. I really didn't see this situation coming, and I think I should have. I've been online for a long time now. I'm no geek, but I have a decent understanding of it. I think all it's done is to make me see how flat out weird, or perhaps overly bored, people in this world are. Ya'll be some crazy pipples!

One of the coolest shirts ever

Saw this on TV on the Travel Channel, on a show called Steak Paradise. There's a steak house in north Texas that serves a 72 oz. slab of cow. If you can eat it and the side salad, potato and some other side dish, you can get it free...if you survive, I guess. One of the guys that tried-and failed, even with a really valiant effort-had this slogan on his shirt. I had to go seek it out, because this is truly one of the coolest shirts in the history of ever.


This ranks second to my "PETA: People for the Eating of Tasty Animals" shirt, which offended a clerk at 7/11 so much that she didn't say a single word to me during the entire transaction of the purchase of a Super Big Gulp, and scowled at me through most of it once she read the shirt. Yeah, that was a great moment.

I still find it somewhat...I dunno...bemusing, I suppose...that there are people out there who allow their day to be affected by what someone wears. I see some slacker with no job in a Che shirt or "I wanna stick it to the rich with Obama, even though they're the ones who employ people" sticker on a vehicle, I simply think "What a poor, misguided person that is" shortened to one word ("idiot"), and go on merrily thinking about shooting and how great it is not to be represented by a Kennedy. Yet, those who worry about what other people wear instead of really doing anything about what concerns them so, can have their day ruined by a shirt slogan. What an odd way to live a life.

If you wondered what to get me for Christmas, this shirt would be a great idea.

What's happened to style?

Where has style gone? I was watching SportsCenter the other night, probably the very good NFL Today show, and I couldn't believe what was seeing. It looked to me as if the current state of style was the worst of all available eras. It hurts my eyes and my heart.


One thing I will always love about Abbott and Costello, besides that they're still funny all these years later, is the clothes. That was a more civil time, when men wore hats that weren't baseball caps, pocket squares were not only stylish but required equipment, and suits looked good. I've always been a fan of that era. It wasn't extreme in color or tailoring, didn't have any extra junk that didn't need to be there, and still had variety. Burberry coats. Double breasted and single breasted suits (although I prefer notched collars to peaked collars, I'd still rock the right peaked collar), narrower ties, and no four in hand or Windsor knots with spread collar shirts. Simple, classic colors and simple, classic tailoring.

Giant knots and spread collars look like ass. Always have, always will. I don't care for that knot or that style of collar under any circumstances, but together they're hideous. I still favor single overhand knots in ties, and it took me a long time to warm up to the trend towards wider ties.

In terms of fashion, it's a lot easier to look good traditionally than it is to look good with flash. Sure, you can get the trendiest suit out there, which will probably be too bright and too shiny, and you'll look fly for a while. Just don't let anybody take pictures of it. Many a torturous moment has been caused by the simple act of breaking out the photo album. One reason I really enjoy Mad Men, besides that it's a great show with great characters doing great-or at least interesting-things, is that the clothes are so awesome.

In searching for this pic (well, a pic like this one):

I came across this article in today's Daily Mail Online, a British online magazine. I had no idea I'd find this, but at least it gives me some hope. I gotta admit, even though it's trendy as can be, I like the current big band swing music. In some ways, I'm hopelessly retro and nostalgic. I very much disagree that the gun isn't required anymore, though.

Sign of the times from Moderately Confused

This would be funnier if it wasn't so accurate.

Supply and Demand

I read this post on the Down Range blog by Chris Hodgdon of Hodgdon Powder Company. As most people who's tinfoil hats aren't on too tight, the reason for the shortage is simply high demand. Some folks seem to think it's unusual that powder would be in short supply, but all I can do when I hear that is to throw down my best Spock Eye Brow Move. Why wouldn't gun powder be unavailable when primers, brass and bullets are in the same category? Reloading equipment is hard to find too, for exactly the same reason. There's simply more demand than we've seen in...well...ever. The amount of buying going on is unprecedented, even in comparison to the Clinton years of the original AWB.

Back before the current ownership of my employer took over, Lightfighter Tactical had to deal with these issues. Basically, at the height of the gear buying frenzy in the early years of the GWOT, nylon stuff was in the same boat that ammo and components are now. I can't count the number of times somebody with no background at all in economics suggested that "well, just order some extras" to solve the availability problem. Here's the thing: if one is backordered, what good does it do to order two or three? They're all back ordered; they're not gonna get here till they get here. Same thing with ammo. It just isn't on the shelf to be ordered.

What we're going to see, though, is a slow down in purchasing, which has already started. There's also going to be a swelling of stuff on the secondary market as those that got in on the Hysterical Gun Buying Frenzy of 2008/2009 find that they can't cover the AmEx bill as it comes due. Guns and ammo will be there, and I'm sure accessories from the high end to the low end will be trickling into that market as well.

I think we're going to see an increase in the number of consumers in the primary market, though. Perhaps a better way to put it would be to say that not all the members of that market will leave it as they realize that the predictions of doom and gloom aren't coming true...until after the mid term elections. A lot of people that didn't intend to become shooters, who just wanted a gun for the home, or just because they feared that the government was going to stomp their rights and tell them they couldn't have something (have no illusions; that's where this administration is moving towards) are going to become avid shooters. They're going to find out what we know: shooting is fun, and training to become as proficient as you can is necessary.

That doesn't mean that the ammo shortage makes any of that easier, but Mr. Hodgdon is right: the supply will eventually meet demand. Markets work, as long as they don't get meddled with. It sucks now, but ammo will be available sooner or later. I'd prefer sooner, as I shoot just about every weekend.

I think we're going to find some friends where we didn't necessarily have them before. The unprecedented spending and hardcore liberalism of the current administration are forcing people to be concerned. While they don't shoot or want to own a gun, they realize that we stand together to protect ALL our rights, or we will hang separately.

Consider your heroes

I got to meet a legend, hero and great American today. Tony Pryor was in the store today, meeting another great American who's just become Surefire's Director of Military Sales. Between the two of them, they've killed more people that the plague (they were all bad). Matt and I got to spend a bit of time hanging out with those two, and it was, as it usually is with those kind of dudes, just sitting at the feet of the masters. There's all kinds of stuff to be learned from listening to a couple of pros talk shop.

Once they'd left, Matt and I kinda looked at each other, grinned and just marveled at how cool it was that one of our heroes was hangin' out and buyin' some stuff. I made a comment about how weird it would seem to a run-of-the-mill average citizen that we care so much about a guy like him coming in, and we wouldn't care that much if George Clooney or "some other faggit", in Matt's words, was there. It brings an interesting question to light: who are your heroes?

The older I get, the less I care about celebrities, especially those that are famous for being famous rather than being talented in a particular area. They're just people. Sure, they do things that are entertaining and get well compensated for that, but for the most part, what they give is escapism...and stupid, uninformed political statements. That I may want to go see somebody's performance in a movie doesn't mean that their popularity means anything more than that they are good performers. Most of them don't contribute much to the country as a whole, although there are exceptions.

There are only a few ways that celebrities, whether they be musicians, actors, athletes, or artists, can get my attention, much less respect. One of those is to take their own time and put it in with the USO or visiting troops on posts across the country. There are those, like John Wayne, who used their celebrity to make things better for America's defenders. Others have used their positions to make things better for their fellow citizens, and some put their hands were their mouth is and work. But a lot of Americans consider them to be royalty for being celebrities, and that's just wrong.

Take some time and look at who your heroes are. Consider why exactly they're your heroes, and what they do to make this a better place. If that's not what they do, perhaps you should consider changing the criteria that put them on that pedestal for you.

T.A.L.L.

I've been pondering of late, which is typically a good way to come to some unusual conclusions and topics. Sometimes it's crucially important stuff, like what to do with all the Obama threads on the forum, what is CAG using, or the frequent topic: entertainment.

Pondering entertainment brings one to consider those that entertain. Most are celebrities, because that comes with the territory. Being high profile means that a lot of people know your name-they think they know you, but do they? I don't think so-and know what you look like. While parts of that suck, parts are easy to let go to your head. We see it all the time. Lookit Lindsay Lohan.

LiLo has pretty much trashed her career with her excessive lifestyle. Apparently, movie makers just don't want to put up with it, regardless of how willing she is to get naked. Its such a shame, too. The girl has talent. She might be able to make a comeback if she can get it together. I hope she does, because she does have talent.

Somebody asked Bill Murray once what it was like to be rich and famous. He thought for a moment, and said "why don't you try just being rich, and see if that doesn't do it for ya". I'm thinking he really knows the what's up. LiLo was getting rich, I guess, but being famous seems to have been the downfall.

There are plenty of hot young actresses in Whollyweird these days. Lots of them come and go, but there are a few that seem to be able to handle the rise and avoid the fall. They're the ones I hope have long, long careers and make tons and tons of money. To that end, I think I'm gonna start a series. The first two on the list are two of my faves:
Anne Hathaway


and Jordana Brewster


They are the first of the Anti-Lindsay Lohans. Yeah, I have a thing for brown eyed brunettes. lol!

Best and Brightest

Saw this pic in a thread of "fail" pics and posters on "my" forum, and couldn't stop chuckling. We're at war with the Best and the Brightest. If it weren't for their significant numbers, this conflict would have been over quite some time ago. I bet if he were able to legally vote, or in Chicago, he'd have voted Obama.

Vince is even worse than Billy Mays

I was hoping that the Shamwow would be the only product we saw being hocked by that Jersey weirdo Vince, but alas, that's not the case. He was selling some kind of chopping thing called the Slap Chop. He even makes a comment along the lines of "you're gonna love my nuts" after chopping a handful of them. All I can think is "Slap Chop...I'd like to do that to Vince".

Its a disturbing trend to see infomercials condensed into a 15 to 30 second format. It was bad enough that they existed in the first place because there was unsold airtime. At least you knew if it was a half hour or more long (remember Tom Vu?) it was gonna be cheesy and low quality. Now they're trying this quick hit thing that I'm sure is much more effective. I mean, if people thought Obama was a good choice for President and that we needed a Democrat majority in Congress, clearly their attention span is short enough to allow them to make these kinds of poor decisions. Vince is capitalizing on American ig'nance. Good for him, bad for America.

Divided We Fail...Fails.

While watching some good ol' American foo'bah yesterday, I saw a commercial that the AARP is paying for. I have no problem with the AARP, except when they get into issues that are outside their game, like gun control. Now, this commercial doesn't really fall outside their purpose, as its all about health care. What I'm trying to figger out, though, is who thought this particular commercial was a good idea.

The commercial has a bunch of alleged humans ostensibly asking our politicians, "Don't say it just to get votes". "Don't tell us something you're not going to do". "Don't lie to us just to get votes". Honorable ideas, right? In general, yeah they are. Naive as can be, but honorable. The problem is, in their zeal to get their political ad on the air to have politicians always tell the truth and only do things that they say they're gonna do, they made one major, major error. They guarranteed that no politician was going to listen to the add, pay any attention to it, or have it impact them in any way: all of the "actors" in this commerical are kids. Not a one of them can vote.

I understand the artificial heartstring factor attendant with the use of kids. If I hear "if it saves just one child's life, it'll be worth it", I'm gonna projectile vomit for record distance. I'm even making sure I don't eat too much rough stuff, like pepperoni, to be sure I set the mark and don't tear my throat up too much in the effort. Why is it nobody ever bothers to ask what'll happen if the proposal in question happens to cost a kid's life at some point? Things that make ya go "hmmmmmm". Sorry, Arsenio; I know you haven't worked in a long time, but I'm not paying ya for that.

The thing is, health care isn't inexpensive. The whole process is costly. Look at the technology involved. None of it is cheap. Equipment costs a ton of money. Urban and suburban real estate where hospitals are located costs a ton of money. Medical fraud costs a ton of money. What are we gonna do, push the doctor button on the educational CNC machine and pop 'em out en masse? Education costs a ton of money. I know that, and I'm not even a medical student. If my degree is costing me this much money, a doctorate in doctoring will, by simple volume of required courses, cost more.

Hey! Let's get the government to pay for it! Yeah! They have money! We'll just have them pick up the bill! What a great idea!! Uh...Captain MENSA, I have some news for you: the gummint doesn't make money. They have no industry that generates capital. In fact, everything they do costs money. So where is the cash for health care coming from?

Go get your last pay stub. Got it yet? Well, get it. I'll wait. OK, you're looking at your stub. See that heading under "deductions"? Yeah, that's your money getting sent elsewhere. That FICA dude that's getting a nice fat chunk of your check-the largest single deduction out of that gross amount-goes to the gummint. Do you really want them to make that number even larger? Maybe double it? "If it leads to quality health care, it'll be worth it". It won't. How long do we have to allow the gummint to prove that they're not the best mechanism for creating, administrating, and handling buraucracies? If you think they'll do medical care any different from Social Security or any other branch of the gummint, you're out of your damn mind. It'll be every bit as inefficient as any other branch of the gummint. They are simply not the best way to get it done. Never have been, never will be, simply cannot be.

Do I think medical care is horrendously expensive? Of course I do. Would I like to see it cost less? Of course I would. However, I'm not willing to get a second rate doctor to do that, when my life is what we're talking about. There's very little that can be done to make it less expensive to field a quality doctor. It costs what it costs, and I'm not willing to sacrifice my care to a second tier doctor that got his doctorate in some third world country.

If socialized medicine, such as it is in England, Canada, and other places around the world, is so freakin' great, why is it that most of the world's leaders come here to the US to be treated, rather than dealing with the systems in their countries? Ain't for no reason. Think about it rationally a minute and maybe you'll get it.

Sen. Byrd blasts Vick. Glass houses, Senator.

Senator Byrd, who should probably be officially named "Doddering Fool of the US Senate", has done it again. I guess this guy never figured out the the old addage that "people in glass houses should not be throwing stones".

I will state up front that I find breeding dogs for fighting to be repugnant. I'm not defending Mike Vick for being involved. Still...it makes me wonder why they're going after him Federally with the over-used Interstate Commerce clause. That's going to be a post for another time.

DFOTUSS Byrd had this to say about this situation:

"I am confident that the hottest places in hell are reserved for the souls of sick and brutal people who hold God's creatures in such brutal and cruel contempt," he said.

So tell me, Senator: are those the same hottest places in hell reserved for Exalted Cyclops of the KKK, or do you guys get your own separate hottest places in hell? Glass houses, jackass. Nice going, making this a racial issue now. All in favor of calling for Byrd to shut his pie hole, vote "aye" with a flip of the bird for Byrd.

Nazis? I hate Illinois Nazis!

So I'm watching The History Channel, AKA the War and Destruction Channel, AKA Among the Very Best Channels on TV, when The Secret History of the KKK comes on. Like everything on THC, production value was excellent, and it was very well done. I'm sure the snotzie's didn't like it, but it seemed to me that it was a solid depiction of the events of history. Sure, it had an anti-hate slant to it, but that's OK with me. It made more sense that way. I used to watch that encephalitic moron Tom Metzker's cable access show "Race and Reason" back in the day. That seems to be about the best the neo nazis can do, which was equal parts comedy, relief, and dismay for me. I'd have loved to see some choice bits of "Race and Reason" to have made it into the History Channel; anything that helps the skinhead movement look as ridiculous as they are is a good thing.

The show brought up a couple questions in my mind, though. First and foremost, how is it that the snotzies were called the National Socialist German Workers' Party, and yet their ideology was anti-communist? I can see them hating Russians, I guess, but communism is just socialism without the intellectual honesty. There is no way to get to commie-ism without going through the Democratic Party...I mean...socialism. The Third Reich was clearly a socialist state, with a dicktaster...uh...dictator as its head. And yet the snotzis proclaimed that communism was not their friend. Current snotzies look at Hitler's administration at a model. Its no wonder it only worked one time in one particular place in the world: even the snotzies didn't have a grasp on what their ideology really was. Nice job picking your role models, guys. Great choice.

The second question that came to mind is this: what happens when you get your way? Say we end up segregated, Whites over here, Blacks over there, Hispanics over there someplace, and the Orientals happily living where they already do for the most part. The Orientals may have it right: islands have that whole beach thing going on, and I suspect that rum would be available ;). So there's this perfect separation of races; Cletus doesn't have to have niggers, kikes, zipperheads, or anyone other than his airian brothers in his neighborhood. The perfect race utopia, right? I guess so; since I'm white and I'll be living there, theoretically, I'm gonna need somebody to sweep the streets, wash my truck when I don't want to, and fill all those undesirable positions that are shown on Dirty Jobs. See where this is going yet? My education, skills, and talents will put me further up the ladder than ol' Cletus will be, and he'll be in the same position he always was.

Lemme spell it out for the thicker ones amongst us: your hate is nothing but a crutch. You complain about the Jews taking over everything and suppressing you, the proud white man that can only get a job where he has his name on his shirt. You complain about the black man getting preferential treatment through affirmative action and getting ahead of you. All you've done is let your hate get in the way of your progress. Ever wonder why the depictions of race haters are generally done with teeth missing, bad haircuts, and stained T-shirts? Because there's truth to it. Sure, you have that "uniform" of the tight jeans and suspenders that we all suspect was borrowed from Steve Urkel. Its obvious that there's not an educated person among you.

So you have hate. How has any of that made your life better? How has the quality of your life improved from this? What's been made better by all this? You spend so much time whining about other races not giving you your due that you've become exactly the same as generations of people on welfare. You spend all your time worrying about everybody else when you should be worrying about making yourself better. And ya know what? It works exactly the same with haters from every other race, too. You'll never amount to much of anything believing what you do. You'll never get over, never have more than you do. That's sad; you're so worried about somebody else that you're sacrificing your life to it.

What's worst of all? For most haters, nothing will change. That being said, I guess that gives me license to use you guys as a source of comedy whenever it suits my purposes.

What would happen if Carrie Underwood really did

Carrie Underwood has this real catchy tune out called "before he cheats". I kinda like the song; the hook is strong and her performance on that track is very solid, and emotionally powerful. The thing is, and this is what drives the people that work with me a little nutty, is that I pay attention to lyrics. In "Big Black Horse and a Cherry Tree", by KT Tunstall, I was the one who realized that the horse was the one who was doing the proposing, which freaked out my coworkers and caused them to dislike what we've come to call "the woo-hoo song". Besides how goofy the lyrics are, hearing it five times a day, 40 + hours a week is too much anyway.

So, when Officer Timmy came over to the shop today, I asked him what Carrie would be looking at for charges if she were to do what was claimed in the chorus. So you don't have to go look it up, being the kind and benevolent dictator of this blog that I am, I'm going to quote it for you:

That I dug my key into the side of his pretty little souped up 4 wheel drive,
carved my name into his leather seats...
I took a Louisville slugger to both headlights,
slashed a hole in all 4 tires...

Turns out that in Kentucky, that's called Felony Criminal Mischief. OT said that's what's typically charged when stuff like vandalism of more than a thousand dollars is involved. What you're looking at is five years in Federal Pound You in the Ass Prison. Typically, what happens is the charge will get plead down, and would normally end up with a couple years probation, and she'd have to either pay the deductible and and difference in the coverage to get the truck repaired, or she'd have to go out of pocket for the whole thing. If she fought it and lost, she'd be looking at max penalties, because her response was so far out of proportion to what he did to her.

I'm not in any way advocating cheating on your significant other. Doing that makes you pretty much a dirtbag, and there's no two ways about it, whether you cheat on her, or she cheats on you. If you're gonna cheat on 'em, just man up and break up with the chick. Sure its difficult, but it beats having to deal with a bunny boiler. I know some dudes on the Intarweb-not to name Wild Mustang's name, though-that have been there. Its endlessly entertaining for us, but its unnecessarily...griefy for you, and her.

Still, we all know what really happened in the story that the song presents: she goes to jail overnight (at least; that's assuming somebody makes bail for her) he knows she's gone for at least the night, and he ends up doing the horizontal mambo with her best friend and her other best friend, while her other best friend mans the video camera. We all know Carrie's best friend in this scenario is a hose beast who couldn't be trusted to stay out of anybody's pants. I'm sure she's a bleached blonde, too. We know how they are.

Leave the truck alone and just leave. How hard is that?

Who's smokin' dah rock at Quizno's?

I hate it when companies put bad commercials in heavy rotation. Geico's metrosexual homo cavemen has taken me to about the limit of my patience. If I see one more variation of the whiney punk ass caveman bitching about how bad his life is, I'm gonna club something. I'd prefer a caveman to take the cudgel to, but I might look elsewhere. Like the people in the new Quizno's commercial.

I've tried the new garlic prime rib sandwich. Its OK. Not the best ever, but OK. The commercial for it is making me crazy, though. Why? Cuz they have some fat ass gamer dweeb saying "Prime rib is the OOber meat". He sounds like he's saying prime rib is the Goober Meat. Go back to playing Worlds of Warcraft and leave the productive members of society alone, dude.

Then there's the skinny hose beast that says "Its not lackin' any meat. And that's what a woman really wants" followed by what is clearly and without equivocation the most irritating laugh ever. Worse than Rachel Ray. Where's my Blackthorne Stick? That woman should be seen and not heard...and not seen would be even better. The sandwich could be the best thing since Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and the sandwich would still not be good enough to cover the stupid, irritating, gratingly moronic, recklessly aggravating commercial that advertises it.

Quizno's, you've done it again. You've given me reason to avoid your latest product. Geico did that a long time ago; good thing their prices did it even before the excessively stupid caveman commercials were aired.

Yes, I like adjectives.

Why is Anna Nicole such a big deal?

In between Jericho, an online quiz for my Scientific Models of Origins class, and Personal Defense TV, I did a bit of channel surfing. I noticed a trend that goes back all the way to last week, and possibly even further back than that. Its a disturbing trend, and one that I certainly don't understand. Seems to be very little call for it, but its there nonetheless.

What is it(?), I hear you asking. What is it that vexes Haji so? What could it be, this heinous thing that permeates cable TV?

I saw, yet again, another show about Anna Nicole Smith. I don't understand what the reasoning is. What did she do that made her worth being a celebrity that must be memorialized for weeks on end? Was she a helper of people like Mother Theresa? Was she a philanthropist as Bill Gates has become? Was she an artist, a poet, a thespian (that's an actor, not a chick that digs chicks...in case you were confused) , a world leader? Ummm...no, not quite. Let's do a quick recap:

• Playboy model, and an exotic dancer, if I recall correctly
• Marrier of almost dead multi-millionaires
• mother of a kid who died under mysterious circumstances
• Certified, Grade A, First Class Trainwreck

So what is it about her that's so compelling? I can't think of a thing. Presidents have died and had less fuss made about them. People with a lifelong body of incredible work in a plethora of fields of endeavor pass without even a note in the newspaper...which is hard to believe, given how little newspapers are read anymore, and how news starved they seem to be.

Here's the bottom line for me: she made a mess of her life. She died tragically, but likely of her own carelessness. I feel for her daughter and her uncertain future. That truely is a tragedy. Her life, though, isn't even good spectacle. She should be lamented, not celebrated. Kinda makes me a little bit sick to think that she has this kind of impact. America is becoming a weird, weird place.

Two Movies to Recommend

Let's get this out of the way up front: I'm old. I turned 40 a few weeks ago. My alleged formative, great years-according to the radio and TV, anyway-were in the mid to late '80s. Truth be told, I'm more than happy to have moved beyond the high school years. They were not my best or even favorite years. I've had a heck of a lot more fun since then. That being said, that period of time did much to formulate and solidify my beliefs, ethics and convictions. Being born in the 60's pretty much means that you're a child of the70's and '80's, and the events of those decades were very, very influential. Which brings us to the "why" of the recommendation for seeing these movies.

The first of them is simple nostalgia, really. The Lords of Dogtown is simply an accounting of the groundbreaking that happened because of the Z-Boys. The story is more about the interpersonal relationships of that bunch, but the movie is so well done that I can't help but get that feeling of "the good takes place during my growing up years. Being a California kid when skateboards came out meant that my life revolved around skating (and BMX, but there's no movie to recommend about that) and all things related to it. LODTol' days". It extends even as far as the background music. There's a song by Budgie (Crash Course in Brain Surgery, released in '71) that went on to be covered by Metallica. Its all a wonderful snapshot of a very unusual time in America. There was still a little bit of that youthful innocence while the ways of the world were portrayed as well. The best and worst of the time is in there. Its a pretty doggone accurate account, even for a fictional story, of that time in history.

The interesting thing is that while it could be about the changes in technology, it remains to be about the people involved. All the changes in the scene are documented, but they're not the most important thing. The people are.

If, after seeing this flick, you wish to get a documentary account of the story, Stacy Peralta made great film called "Dogtown and Z Boys". He was there, so the documentary is as much a recollection of his youth as an accounting of the personalities and the times. Both of these flicks are really worth watching, especially if you're from that time...or your dad was.

The other film of note is called Miracle. It stars Jack Burton...I mean....Wyatt Earp...I mean...Kurt Russell. This is the story of the '80 Olympic Hockey Team that won the gold medal, beating the Soviets who were the best team in the world at the time. The best thing about this particular movie is that very few of the actors are ones anyone's ever seen before. They're not stars, but the performances are awesome. The players look like players. Even Kurt Russell, who looks very little like Herb Brooks facially, goes above and beyond in this performance. His was the type of portrayal that should be honored with academy awards, instead of the latest guy playing a drunk again.

One of the most telling things to happen in this film happens after the Christmas party as Herb is on his way home. They play a bit of the State of the Nation speech by then-president Carter. The section of the speech they used perfectly desribes the feeling of America at that time. We were looking for something to latch onto to make us feel good about being Americans again. The Carter administration inhereted some ugly problems (remember, there was still fallout from Watergate at that time), and created some more of their own. America needed something to get that feeling of national pride again. This team happened along at the right time, and handed the world one of the most amazing shockers of all time. This film does a great job of explaining why it was so important. On top of that, the actors look like hockey players, rather than actors playing hockey players and not looking like they belong there.

Both of these movies are snap shots of periods in time that could easily be depicted as different from what it really was. The way I remember it (yeah, I know) is how they showed it. Kudos, not to mention the endorsement of a blog writer that hardly anyone reads, to those that made this great films.

Could There Be Hope For Zumbo Yet?

It was "reported" on Lightfighter.net. ATS Tactical Gear's forum, that there may be a way for Jim Zumbo to get back into AR shooter's good graces. You'll probably recall that ol' Jim Z posted on his blog words to the effect of "AR's and AK's are terrorist guns, and terrorists are the only ones that use them." He lost his blog, connection with Outdoor Life, endorsements with Remington, and basically destroyed his career with some poorly chosen words. Did he deserve it? Yeah. However, several influential people have said "that's enough", and are moving towards mitigating any further vilification of Zumbo.

To that end, Denny Hansen and SWAT Magazine have gotten together with Pat Rogers and arranged to have Jim take the Carbine Operator's Course, and write an article to be published in SWAT magazine. This is due to happen soon, so the article will probably be out in a few months.

Since Zumbo comes from a hunting background and not a shooting one, apparently, his perspective on this class should be interesting. Being a firearms hunter, I would think that he would at least understand that shooting is fun, so he should have a fun, and very enlightening, experience in this class.

Kudos to all involved here: Denny Hansen, Pat Rogers, SWAT magazine, and Ted Nugent, who apparently was the conduit to contact Jim Zumbo. I think you're gonna get a kick out of this class, Jim.

Career killing statements and the 1st Amendment

By now I'm sure most shooters have heard about the career suicide that Jim Zumbo commited on his blog about a week ago. I've known about Zumbo for years. I'm no particular fan, but I've read a lot of stories written by him over the last long time, and while I can't really recall any of them, I didn't hate them, either. He's an experienced hunter that's been a lot of places I'd like to go hunt. He's one of the Charmed Ones: guys that get to hunt and be outdoors for a living. Its not a great way to get rich, but its a heck of a good life, and not an easy career to get into. There aren't a whole bunch of people that can have those jobs. They're somewhat rare in terms of the entire population.

Because they're rare opportunities, and are high profile gigs, words from people in positions like that carry a lot of weight. When Zumbo or any other well known writer puts his name on a product and declares it the Next Big Thing, they are essentially making it the Next Big Thing. The weight of what a major writer, or actor, musician or just about anyone else in the public eye of their particular industry, says carries way more weight than anything I have to say. I doubt anyone reading what I write has their mind changed even a little bit. Someone can read what Zumbo said and base their next major investment, perhaps thousands of dollars, on his words. I don't have that kind of power.

Zumbo's self destruction was inevitable, and is exactly what should have happened, given what he said. Personally, I wanna see that happen to anyone in his position that shares his views. Dave Petzal, you're next. When you take a large portion of the shooting populace, and the entire Coalition Military Forces, and tell them that owning an AR or AK makes them a terrorist, you deserve to have your position of influence taken away. That's the same thing that happened to the Dixie Chicks, too: open mouth, insert foot (or feet, in their case), have paydays taken away. That is the way of it.

The funny thing to me, though, is that as soon as that happens, the hue and cry of "Censorship!" comes out. Allegedly, ol' Jimmy Zumbo was being censored for his comments. The Chicklets were censored because country radio wouldn't play their songs. Here's a newsflash for ya: having a First Amendment guarrantee of free speech does NOT, I say again, does NOT (underlined, and with exclamation points!) give you a pass on paying the consequences of your statements. Words have meanings. When those that supply your paychecks and free stuff (the general public, ultimately) get mad about something stupid, idiotic, thoughtless, moronic, untrue, ignorant, and/or inflammatory that comes out of your pie hole, you get to pay the bill for it. They call your sponsors, your label, your employer, and demand your head. They can do that. Its a simple matter of the populace saying "I don't like that guy. If he's associated with you, I don't want to give you any money for what you produce", and the producer feeling the pinch. That's not censorship, that's cause and effect.

Jimmy, I still don't think you understand how badly you screwed the pooch. You might have saved the job if you'd done a real appology, but you didn't. Same thing happened to the Chicklets: they didn't really apologize, either (and even if they'd done more of one, nobody in country music was gonna believe it anyway) and they paid the price. They still sold platinum, but not to the level they had before, and not to the fans that got them where they are. Eventually, I think it will be seen that they too have crucified their careers. They can have a last single called "Would You Like Fries With That, Baby?"

When you're in the public view, you better understand your audience. All it takes is one thoughtless idea to be laid bare, and all you've worked for is over. Jim Zumbo has been a writer and outdoors celebrity for something like 40 years. That's all over now, because he didn't understand. The real shame is that he probably still doesn't understand, and hates black rifle shooters even more now to boot.

Don't mess with Joe Sixpack. He'll hammer you to the backyard shed just to watch you squirm when you deserve it. You will pay a price for the things you say. How far you fall depends on how high you've been lifted up.

Joes vs Pros...vs Pros...Joes...whatever.

Typically, this wouldn't really be my cuppa tea. Mmmmmm...tea...Oh, wait. Distracted. Pros vs. Joes! That's it. OK!

The best part is seeing people run smack and have to pay for it. I love that part. Ya know you're gonna be competing against somebody who got paid to do it, and you're gonna run smack about it? Nice going. Always a good idea to piss off a guy who played a sport at a top level for a decade. More than one, actually. I love the viewing of the audition tapes. Today they were makin' fun of Spudd Webb, before shooting three pointers against him. They tried to keep up with Andre Reed, too. That was pretty funny. I absolutely loved seeing the All Sport Equivalent of Softball Guy in an octagon with Randy Couture. He's not even a submission fighter, but he put on a decent clinic of lock holds.

Just because you may be a decent D League Softball Guy doesn't mean you can compete against even the Usta Be guys. How 'bout a little introspection so I don't have to blog about how embarassed you were on national (OK, cable, but with national distribution) TV. If I cared enough, I'd get all the losers pics together and post 'em up, but that would not be all that interesting to the 20 people who read my blog.

SHOT show

I was in Orlando this past week from Wednesday very late night through Sunday morning. Why would I be in Orlando? Two reasons: get the heck out of Kentucky for a little while, and to attend SHOT show.

SHOT stands for Shooting Hunting and Outdoor Trade show. Basically, any company worth its salt that is at all connected to any of those fields is there. This is the first big chance for retailers and wholesalers to get a look at new stuff and place orders. I generally call it "Disneyland with Triggers". There's everything from the junk Hi Point guns to sets of four Perazzi shotguns that go for $300,000. Yeah, you read that right.

I found a couple cool new things there. The Magpul Masada rifle is cool as all get out, and when it finally becomes available I will have one. That'll probably take a couple years yet, but I can wait. I also came across a cool new cleaning kit at the KG Gunkote booth. Its made by Lanigan Performance Products and even if it only works marginally well, at least it makes cleaning the bore more fun than it is with a brush. Basically whatcha got here is a CO2 powered propellant unit that shoots a felt plug down the bore of the gun to clean fouling out. If nothing else, its just plain fun to shoot those plugs around the homestead. It only runs about $35. I couldn't find the manufacturer at the show, and I didn't wanna pay the retail price at KG, so I'm gonna look into picking one of these up through work. What can I say? I'm poor.

There were a few other cool products, but that really meant very little to me at this show. The highlights for me were the people I met. I spent about an hour with the coolest guy in the world, custom knifemaker Bill Harsey. We talked knives, guns and watches, and I couldn't have had a more enjoyable time. That man has forgotten more about knives than I will ever know. He also introduced me to some pretty high speed guys. Mr. Harsey is very well known and liked, and has earned his title of Knifemaker to the Quiet Professionals. He's also a huge, huge man.

In addition to Mr. Harsey, I also got to meet several moderators and members of the forum I am an administrator of, Lightfighter.net. I went to the Gemtech/SWAT/TR party, and within a short time, I was laughing my head off with a bunch of lifelong friends I had just met. Then a SWAT cop who goes by the screen name Hetzer busted out the artillery shell-shaped vodka bottle. Note to self: don't be so agreeable to take a shot from a glass that looks like a projectile. I only had a few, but one of my other new friends had several, and that's the kind of thing that lives with ya for a while. Overall, it was great, great fun. It wouldn't have been possible without the internet. As much as I dislike some aspects of the 'net, it has done an amazing job of bringing people together.

SHOT is in Vegas next year, and ATS should have a rather sizable booth there. I expect I'll be working the show, so stop by and introduce yourself.